Hiya all! New member, anniola, here. I was introduced to the music of Pete Atkin in the early 70s {by the man who broke my heart} and have only recently come back to the fold courtesy of t'net. Still love King At Nightfall best, but will deffo get Midnight Voices when it's back in stock.

Good to hear your voice on the Forum so soon after joining. Just a suggestion: rather than wait for amazoon, why don't you place an order direct with Pete at Hillside Music? That way you'll get it sooner, and you could request a personally autographed copy! Or come along to Wavendon on Friday, pick up a copy and have a chat with the man after the show...

I was last around about 4 years ago, in the days of the old email list, and enjoyed the chat very much. Time and circumstances changed, and I drifted away, but now I have come back to see what's new

I was first introduced to Pete and Clive while at Uni in 1972-3 and bought/borrowed/blagged and even (oops) recorded all of the albums. I also saw Pete in concert a couple of times. The music was a huge part of my youth. Much later, I got in touch with Pete through the BBC (I heard he was producer of the programme I was listening to, and thought - is it really?) and asked if he was planning on doing any more recording or touring. His answer was, basically, not bloody likely, but he was kind enough to send me a cassette tape - this was before the days of CDs - of some stuff I knew and some that was new to me, and I thought that was an incredibly kind gesture.

My next contact was after a lazy trawl through Google, which threw up Smash Flops and the email list, which I joined, and which led me to see Pete and Clive in concert in Cardiff in (I think) 2004-ish. I got all the albums on CD, and later on the newer material. Finally, this Christmas, Santa brought me Midnight Voices Vol 1. So my world is complete.

Sorry to witter on. I'm glad to be back, and looking forward to some interesting conversation in here. Hello to everyone.

Hi Richard, Welcome back! Weren't you one of the MVs who met in a strange, foodless pub opposite the St David's Hall in Cardiff before the concert? I still feel guilty for suggesting such a weird place, but then it had been the public library in a previous existence. Jan

Yes, that was me - with wife Di. She still wears the little guitar-shaped badge I got her at the event.

What a strange pub that was! It reminded me a bit of an airport lounge - lots of space, few people, and an air of transience. Please don't feel guilty about the location, though. It was an experience. What's a bit of hunger when a place is so - er - interesting?

It was a great evening, though; very enjoyable. We must meet up again, at the next one (hint).

Hello I'm Cherry. I was first introduced to 'The Beautiful Stranger' () when I was only about 8. My uncle had the original record, and he and my mum were reminiscing. I had a very bad copy on cassette that my sister made for me, and was prompted to 'google' when I tried to find it this weekend and failed. I looked last Summer to see if I could get a copy on cd and didn't have a lot of luck, so was amazed to find one yesterday on play.com. I found this forum looking up the lyrics to 'Have you got a biro...' .

Cherry, we are delighted to have you with us...and contrary to popular opinion not all of us are grizzled oldies who discovered Pete and his music last century! I plead guilty to having been introduced to his music when I first went to University in Nottingham! Oh, damn, it WAS last century! OK, I was 18...not 8! (1970, Heaven help us).

Good to know that you enjoy the music and have found this site. Hope you enjoy the banter here. You will have noticed that we are really fortunate in Demon (Edsel) records re-releasing all the original material, with some bonus tracks. Best wishes to you and your folky Mum!

You're still finding us, trickling into the fold some 8 years after we started it all.

And I've just trickled in almost 5 years after you wrote this

So what brings you here?

Mmm... random googling I think! I bookmarked MV some time ago but didn't join, then mislaid the bookmark amongst 100s of others. Just came across ot again recently.

How did you first encounter Pete's music?

A gig at Durham University circa 1974. I hadn't gone deliberately to see Pete (I'd never heard of him), I was in my A level year at a local school & it was part of a "Why you should go to Durham University" thing. It didn't convince me to do that, but did convince me to buy "The Road of Silk" with my next pay as a Saturday Girl in Woolworths... Went to see him again at Bradford Uni in 1976; in full knowledge of what I was doing this time! Bought Secret Drinker...

What made you stay faithful through all the wilderness years?

Purely & simply, love of the music/lyrics. I got part of Secret Drinker & all of RoS put on CD in the early days of that technology - boy, can you hear the scratches! they're always on any MP3 player I carry... I've got all of the re-releases on my Amazon wishlist, & brought it to the attention of my daughter & husband; got a birthday coming up soon If they don't come through I'll just have to fork out myself.

I have been aware of MV for some time, but decided to sign up when I learnt (by chance) of the recent re-issues.

How did I first encounter Pete's music?

Through an old friend - Ian Sorensen (Hi Ian!)

What made me stay faithful through the wilderness years?

When my vinyl collection went the way of most vinyl, Pete's LPs were some of the very few I transferred to cassette tape.

What's my favourite Atkin song?

So many to choose from. I could pick anything from DTMA or the original Side One of AKAN. I'll go for Carnations On The Roof.

Why?

The track that's been in my head since trying to obtain a cd copy. The macabre humour, Pete's vocal delivery and a cracking tune - quasi motown backbeat and an inspired string arrangement over the chorus.

Have you explored the new songs - I Have To Learn is close to perfection My Brother's Keeper compares favourably with the 1970s classics. I am sure that the good people at Hillside Music would be most happy to furnish you with the CDs

Though he had no great gifts of personality or mind, he was quite well respected.

Hi I'm Jonathan, and probably the youngest member of the forum at 14 years of age. I found PA/CJ songs after listening to my dad play them time and again. I loved them once he stopped playing them and I could come back to them with a fresh ear. Favourite song at the moment is probably Between Us There Is Nothing, the lyrics, the music, the whole package fits more smoothly than any song ever written. I always remember fast-forwarding through it to find Carnations on the Roof, because I knew that I liked that (I was 8) then I thought something along the lines of "hey, I like this song that I continually fast forward through" and I was hooked. Sadly I have never seen Pete live, but some day... Got to dash-School!

Eee, I remember when this was just a weekly email, and now it's all fields and HTML and stuff...

Recap - My fanship (neologisms'r'us) goes back to a half-hour Footlights TV show in, I think, 1968. Grainy black&white of course, but I had the reel-to-reel 4-track handy and the mic was working that day. Clocked the names Atkin, James and Covington, attempted to work out some of the songs. Unfortunately my notes went missing long before I ever performed any, so my version of "For Instance" always had an inferior line or two interpolated.

(What happened to the tape? Sorry, I kept all my tapes until long after they must have become unplayable, but they went about 15 years ago, in a house move along with my A-level notes of even vintage. Couldn't make sense of those either)

I think I fell off the old board while trying to write a review of the Cambridge concert in 2002- or -3ish? and I think I saw the file ("Bringing_it_all_back_home.doc") deleted while clearing out from my last job. I can't remember any of what I was going to say except something about "... the sublime Dreamboat". That one must be up there with BOTBS as my favourite: just read those lyrics. Go on, do it - now don't they put nearly every lyric you've ever seen to shame? Even most of the first-generation CJ lyrics? All they need is a perfectly apposite tune, which, ahahaha, PA has supplied. Magic!

I'm back aboard through a combination of circs, including under-employment and the consequent increase in "free" time spent at my local public library, where I discovered the fact of the recent reissues. Nice to see a few names still here that I recognise, and to be recognised myself (instantly) by SJB. Fame at last.

Hello everyone. Having been a reader of various forums over the years but never feeling the desire to sign up to one, here I am. Midnight Voices finally won me over. Mind you it's taken me several weeks before venturing to make a comment.

But here goes.......

I think the first of Pete Atkin's albums I bought was Secret Drinker, although it could have been Driving Through Mythical America. I then bought Live Libel and Master of the Revels. It then took me several years to manage to get hold of A King at Nightfall and The Road of Silk. I then waited, and waited some more, and then waited a bit longer but no more albums came to light. Vinyl became harder to play (lack of record decks) so I had some tracks copied on to mini disc (remember them?) and onto cassette so I could at least still have the occasional listen. CD soon dominated and so I was stuck - I did look every so often on various music sites to see if the albums were on CD but to no avail. They were either out of stock and no more for the foreseeable future or people wanted to sell them for upwards of 40 quid!!!!

My husband did find Winter Spring for me and I was extremely pleased, however, I still wanted the old albums. Then last June I got the best birthday present ever!!! My fabulous husband bought all of the albums - now rereleased on CD. I think I told everyone who would stand still long enough to listen - mind you, most of then looked at me blankly or just nodded kindly. I was obviously the only person who knew who Pete Atkin was. But I didn't care. The albums are now on my ipod and I'm loving everyone again.

Which track is my favourite? Wow - that's a difficult one. Secret Drinker...Beware of the Beautiful Stranger.....Master of the Revels.....Ballad of an Upstairs Window....Be Careful when they offer you the Moon...Girl on the Train.....Shadow and the Widower ???? To be honest the list could go on (and on and on). I'm not sure there is a track I dislike at all. I think if I had to choose one for my Desert Island Disc it would have to be Beautiful Stranger or maybe Secret Drinker or.......... sorry can't decide, although it would definately be one of those two, I think, perhaps.....

I do regret making the decision not to go to a gig (many moons ago) - Pete was playing at a venue very local to me but I was a teenager and would have had to go alone, so said (rather stupidly in hindsight) - I won't bother, I'll wait til next time. Well, I'm still waiting! I am determined to get to a gig eventually - better late than never.

I've just thought, Winter Spring isn't on my ipod - must go and remedy that right now.

Well, thank you to anyone who got to the end of this rambling message but it's lovely to know that anyone who reads it will at least know who and what I'm talking about.